Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1887-02-02

The speech Of Senator Vest, of Missouri
against the granting Of suffrage to wOmer
was most felicitious. He said:
Il pity the man who can consider any
question affecting the influence of woman
with the cold. dry logic of business. Wha
man can without aversion turn from the
blessed memory Of that dear old grand
mother, Of the gentle words and caressing
hand of that blessed mother gone to the
unknown world, TO place i'll its stead the
idea Of a female justice Of the peace OF
township constable? For my part | want
when | 90 home-when turn from the
arena where man contends with man
| for what we call the prizes of this paltry
world want to go back, not to be re
ceived in the masculine embrace of some
female ward politician, but to the earnest,
loving look and touch of true woman
| want to go back to the jurisdiction of
the wife, and mother, and instead of a lee
ture upon finance or the tariff, or upon
the construction Of the constitution, |
want those blessed, loving details Of do
mestic life and domestic love- | have said
| would not speak of the inconvenience to
arise from woman suffrage. | care not
whether the mother is called upon to de
eide, as jurylnan or jurywoman, rights
of property or rights of life while her baby
is 'mewling and puking' in the solitary
confinement at home. There are other con
siderations more important, and one of
them. to my mind, is insuperable. speak
now respecting women as a sex. | believe
that they are better than men, but do not
believe they are adapted to the political
work of this world. / do not believe the
Great Intelligence ever intended them to
invade the spheres of work given to men,
tearing down and destroying all the best in
fluences for which God has intended them.
THE great evil in this country today is
in emotional suffrage. The great danger
today is in eXcitable suffrage If the voters
of this country could think always coolly,
ana if they could deliberate, and if
they could go by Judgment and net by
passion, our institutions would survive for
ever, eternal as the foundations of the con
tinent itself; bat maSsed together, subject
to the eXcitements of mobs and these ter
rible political contests that come upon us
year by year under the autonomy of the
government, what would be the result il
suffrage were given to the women of the
United Statesg Women are essentially
emotional, 1t is no disparagement to
them that they are so. 1t is no more in
sulting to say that women are emo
tional than to say that they are
delicately constructed physically and unfit
ted to become soldiers or workmen under
the sterner, harder pursuits of life. What
we want in this country is to avoid enc
tional suffrage, and what We need is TO put
more logic into the public affairs and less
feeling. There are spheres in which
feeling should be paramount There are
kingdoms in which the heart should reign
supreme. That kingdom belongs to
woman-the realm Of sentiment, the realm
of love, the realm Of the gentler and the
holier aud the kindlier attributes that
make the name of wife, mother and sister
next to that of God himself. l would not.
l say it deliberately. degrade woman by
giving her the right of suffrage. | mean
the word in its full Specification because l
believe that woman as she is today, the
queen Of home and of hearts is above the
political collisions of this world and should
always be kept above them"